Looking Forward

As you may know, I have decided to go to graduate school in the Fall to begin a doctoral program in bioengineering. Over the last couple weeks the idea of starting a completely new life has sort of freaked me out. I'm comfortable where I am. Now, I'm finally starting to get excited about it. I think it's because I've visited that school that I think is going to make me happy. My gut is yelling in my ear to do something. And in those peaceful moments where I pretend that decision is official, I get excited. I think that means it's the right one?

I'm excited to go out there, get dirty, and make some science. It's been a while since I've felt ownership of a project, and I'm really looking forward to that independent feeling. I'm excited. I think I needed that in order to feel okay with leaving Penn. Everyone who hears me talk about the schools I'm deciding between agrees with me based on how I talk about them. But even still, the logical scientist in my head still wants to go to the drawing board, make some pro/con lists and optimization charts to make sure I'm not screwing up.

But in keeping with the exciting 'yay science' theme, Below is an excerpt from my personal statement for grad school applications. It will give you guys a little taste about why I'm going through with an extra five years of education. Hope you Enjoy! And comments are always appreciated.

“Look at the fish!” my engineering
entrepreneurship professor reminded us before concluding our final class
together. While these words probably sounded nonsensical to waiting students
lingering in the hallway, they are the words that continually remind me of why
I want to pursue a Ph.D. program in biomedical engineering. They allude to the
teaching style of Louis Agassiz, who left a fish in front of his student and
instructed him to examine it without turning to literature or discussing the
task with others. Weeks went by with no attention from Agassiz,
except for insistence to keep looking. While at first the task seemed mundane,
the student eventually saw the symmetry he was supposed to see and just how
much he had not seen in the beginning. He learned the valuable lesson of
thinking for oneself and to not be content with the facts at hand – to see new
things. “Looking at the fish” sums up my desire to attend graduate school. I am
ready to find my own answers and to see what others have not seen.

2 responses to “Looking Forward”

Oh, that fish. That crazy fish. The deeper I get into calculating operating expenses, working capital, cash flow, revenue and expense estimates, the harder it gets to look at the fish. The fish is too damn complicated!
Great personal statement.